Initial steps taken to save African lion (CNN/Reuters)

[eppur_se_muova]

Initial steps taken to save African lion

Monday, January 16, 2006; Posted: 1:57 p.m. EST (18:57 GMT)

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/01/16/african.lions.reut/index.html

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) -- Regional governments and conservationists have agreed on initial steps that need to be taken to save the African lion, which has been pushed to the brink of extinction throughout much of its range.
****
The lion's overall situation is dire in the face of swelling human populations on the world's poorest continent.

"Over the past 20 years, lion numbers are suspected to have dropped dramatically from an estimated 76,000 to a population estimated to be between 23,000 and 39,000 today. Across Africa, the lion has disappeared from over 80 percent of its former range," the World Conservation Union said.

In West Africa lions number fewer than 1,500.
------------
That's right, folks. LIONS. We're losing the animals in the kids' A-B-C books now. This isn't some wierdly named, obscure fish that lives in only one river or some humble herb that grows in only one remote forest. We'll be losing the animals with one-syllable names next. (Oh, whales? I've guess we've already started, at that.)

[roguevalley]

1. I can barely read threads like this, I am so sad. What a world we

will be without their like. God bless them, the beasts of the world.